RoccondilRinon said:
The thing about the PT is that we know this is Anakin Skywalker's story arc.
Well, we don't actually, not if we're watching the films in chronological order. One of the goals of many PT fanedits (including, I believe, Adywan's Revisited series) is to make them viewable in chronological order without spoiling the plot twist in ESB. To argue that we already know all this because we wouldn't be sitting here editing the films otherwise is missing the point; if TPM is designed to be the first seen in the sequence, as GL claims and several fanedits are designed, it's OK if it stands alone and sets up the universe and we don't really hit the "main" plot (which does tie into the events of TPM; we must remember that it's in TPM that Palpatine gets elected Chancellor) until AOTC.
Re Ady's PT nods in ANH:R, they make sense on the above theory because it's ultimately going to be the fourth film in the sequence, so it has to tie in more; although it's still going to follow a time skip so it has to start afresh to some extent.
For those of us who have seen the OT and love only those three (obviously cos we all come here to post stuff. lol) yeah the prequels is the second trilogy you'd show your kids to watch if at all. lol However, as time goes by and for the average normal person, that makes no sense because there is an entire generation of kids out there who will watch it in order... Why? cos like counting numbers is one of the things most kids are taught. =P lol...
Further, it makes no sense to be that short sighted to save a surprise in ESB. I actually think it's just as dramatic if you didn't know Vader is Luke's father because you empathies with Luke the whole time during the fight on Cloud City and then Vader drops the bomb we all already know. You feel Luke's stomach folds in on itself and his utter disbelief but we all know it to be true...
So Palpatine's long shot plot to get a "vote of no confidence" on Valorum, then get nominated to surplant him out of a few candidates, and then get elected for all the power is his "master plot" for TPM? Wow... the political intrigue there is... so... so... so boring, very worthy for a movie named Star WARS. Why not call it Star Politics then, Episode 1, The Phantom Vote. =P
The thing is, we have NO idea what Adywan wants to do with TPM:R (he's kinda focused on ESB:R and doesn't even want to think about ROTJ:R yet either). However, if he keeps 90% of TPM... it'll be mediocre at best but a step up from an utterly crap. However, I think if he wanted to take a bold shot at making Episode 1 make sense, while eliminating 90% of the annoyance which are the Gungans. Then cut out 50% of the movie by removing all the Gungan plots and subplots, supplement the 50% with new or manipulated footage that could drive a plot that can tie in elegantly with the rest of the PT (and I think a clone driven plot could work very well)... If we keep the TPM story as is and soley fix the technical "errors" and just tone the the visual crap, it's still gonna be incredibly lame as the first SW movie... It will still makes no sense.